



°^ * 



^^^^^^ ;^^\ "V^^/ -^^^^^ 'V'^^"' °'^R'^ "- 




■^ 





•^ 




■^ 



^^-n^. 



\ *'^ 



': ^-^/ .^^^: %.^^ »^^-: ^^/ -Vilt: 



^-^ 



4 V-*» 



.S^r 






^. *'...* ,0 






/.■■■ 











-^^^0^ :i 



0^ . " • 



"°o 



'o V 




!■• -*.<■** : 



J> 












-^^0^ 

^•l^-*^ 













ro ^-^ ^^ 






V, X/^ ^>^^^^^- %.^ ^^^: ^.Z :^^'^ 



■'^'•, %/ .•>^^.^>-, %,<■* I 




( ' .0 



\^ 






^^^•^'-. 



o, - « . ' ^ ^0-' '^^ ^ - ^ ^<j,^ °^ * » - ° J.° <v \^ 



Origin of the Name of the Town 

of Peterborough, New 

Hampshire. 



By JAML5 F. BRLNNAN, 

Historiographer of the Peterborough Historical Society. 



Gift 

"W.G.Lsland 

JUN ?2 1912 






c^ 



1 



WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF 
OUR TOWN? 



By James F. Brennan. 



I have read the sketch of the romantic 
life of the Earl of Peterborough, given in 
the Transcript of May 17, 1906, which 
is of especial interest to our people from 
the fact of it having been stated that our 
town was named in honor of this English 
"nobleman," who died Oct. 25, 1745. 

It is a somewhat singular fact that but 
little positive historical data exists as to 
the derivation of the name of our town ; 
the brief mention given in the town his- 
tory is based on tradition merely, made 
the more uncertain by two very difTerent 
statements; the one (page 51), that it 
was said to have been named after Charles 
Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, and 
the other (page 261), that it was said to 
have taken its name from Peter Prescott of 
Concord, Mass. Which of these state- 
ments is correct? This is an interesting 
inquiry and must be worked out in the 
light of relative facts and circumstances, 
rather than positive record. 

All references to the origin of the name 
of our town, found in our own state papers 
and those of Massachusetts, are in every 
instance merely the briefest notes of the 
editors, copying one or both of the above 
statements and referring for their au- 
thority to our town history published 
thirty years ago, hence an examination of 
those papers aid us in no way, simply 
bringing us back to these two conflicting 
statements. 

I am satisfied, after a careful investiga- 
tion of available historical data, that our 
town was named after Peter Prescott, who 
was one of the proprietors and activeh' 
engaged in 1738 in directing the survey 
and laying out the town lots, under the 
grant of the Massachusetts legislature 
and encouraging settlers to locate here ; 
he was the most prominent member of 
the committee having charge of the pru- 



dential affairs of the town,i being the 
proprietors' clerk from July 25, 1738, to 
Dec. 21, 1744. While thus engaged, the 
township was known as "Peter Prescott's 
Burrow;" certain it is that the first record 
of a name given to it is to be found in 
the Massachusetts Archives when, in 
1739, the township was called "Peters 
Burrer, " this being contemporaneous with 
this man's practical management and 
control as agent of the proprietors. 

There is a city by the name of Peter- 
borough in England, but none of the set- 
tlers came from there nor indeed from 
any part of England ; these Irish settlers 
were in 'fact intensely anti-English long 

(1) of the sixty origfinal grantees only four 
(Peter Prescott, Jeremiah Gridley, John Hill and 
John Fowle) were practically concerned in the 
settlement of the new township. Peter Prescott 
was the only one to live here for any length of 
time ; he became the owner of a large' number of 
lots ; he was elected to the important office of 
proprietors' clerk, their only active officer ; dur- 
ing his term of office he managed all the pruden- 
tial and other affairs of the township ; under his 
administration the first and sect nd surveys of 
the township were effected and the first division 
of lots made ; during his term of office the main 
highways were laid out, including the principal 
one from New Ipswich ; during his term also the 
petition for incorporation of the town was filed : 
he held this office from the time the township 
was first surveyed until the location of such per- 
manent settlers as William McNee, John Tag- 
gart, William Ritchie, Capt. Thomas Morrison 
and others ; it was during this period that the 
first germ of life was infused into the new settle- 
ment, from which it permanently set out on its 
path as an incorporated town ; a period of incep- 
tion and permanent establishment, when some 
guiding hand was absolutely essential ; in the 
recorded proceedings of those days Peter Pres- 
cott appears in nearly all the transactions, indi- 
cating the important part he took while here in 
the establishment of the town. 

John Hill, another one of our proprietors, be- 
came interested also as one of the proprietors 
of the township named in his honor and since 
known as Hillsborough, he, like Peter Prescott 
of Peterborough, became the proprietors' clerk 
and hence active manager of the affairs of Hills- 
borough ; each had their respective town named 
after them, while holding a similar office, in 
precisely the same way ; ours might perhaps 
liave been called Prescottborough, were it not 
for the fact that there were two proprietors of 
the name of Prescott, Peter the active promoter 
and Jonathan empowered .simply to call the first 
meeting in 173S to elect a proprietors' clerk and 
transact other business. 



What Was the Origin of the Name of Our Town ? 



before that sentiment found violent ex- 
pression in the War of the Revolution, in 
which they participated with such zeal 
and self-sacrifice; (as recorded in our 
town history) it was the attempts to es- 
tablish the Church of England and to de- 
stroy the prevailing religious systems, so 
dear to the people, together with the 
oppressive land laws, that created in these 
Irish Presbyterians a hatred for the form 
of government under which they lived ; 
they were — as stated on page 34 — made 
by that church, the objects "of persecu- 
tions as mean, cruel, and savage as any 
which have disgraced the annals of re- 
ligious bigotry and crime. 'Many were 
treacherously and ruthlessly butchered, 
and the ministers prohibited, under severe 
penalties, from preaching, baptizing, or 
ministering in any way for their flocks.' " 
And it is further stated (page 35) that the 
"government of that day, never wise in 
their commercial relations or their gov- 
ernmental affairs, began to recognize 
them only in the shape of taxes and em- 
barrassing regulations upon their industry 
and trade. In addition to these restric- 
tions, the landlords — for the people, then 
as now, did not own land, they only rent- 
ed it — whose long leases had now ex- 
pired, occasioned much distress by an ex- 
travagant advance upon the rents, which 
brought the people to a degrading subjec- 
tion to England, and many of them were 
reduced to comparative poverty." They 
would no longer submit to these wrongs 
and (page 36) "animated by the same 
spirit that moved the American mind in 
the days of the Revolution, resolved to 
submit to these oppressive measures no 
longer ; and, sought a freer field for the 
exercise of their industry, and for the 
enjoyment of their religion." 

These Irish Presbyterians were no wor- 
shipers at the shrine of optimacy, with 
its coterie of landlords, earls, and other, 
so-called, noblemen ; it was in fact to be 
forever rid of this entire system that they 
faced the dangers and hardships of the 
voyage to and settlement of this new 
country ; their immigration was a bitter 



protest against the English ruling classes 
and the reign of autocracy under which 
that system thrived. Was there anything 
in the sentiments of these settlers to lead 
a person to believe they would select an 
English earl as their hero?^ 

Again, it is impossible to believe that a 
christian people, as were these settlers — 
even if thev wished to honor some noble- 



(3) A few towns in this vicinity which were 
incorporated during the English regime— as an 
inducement to receiving their charter — submitted 
to the naming of the town after resident Eng- 
lish loyalists ; thus Frances Deering, the beauti- 
ful wife of Guv. John Wentworth, the last royal 
governor of New Hampshire, paid all the ex- 
penses and used her potent influence in obtain- 
ing the charter of both Francestown and Deer- 
ing in 1774, on condition that the towns be named 
from her maiden name (Vol. 24 State Papers, 
pages 67, 679) ; Temple was named in honor of 
Sir John Temple, (Vol. 25 State Papers, page 571) 
who, although born in Boston, became lieuten- 
ant governor, (afterwards baronet) hence sec- 
ond personage in the province in 176S when the 
town was chartered through his aid and influence; 
Jafi^rey was named after George Jaffrey, (Vol. 
25, State Papers, Page 158), one of the Masonian 
proprietors, who, in 1773, when the town was 
incorporated, was a member of the governor's 
council and used his influence to obtain the 
charter. A few towns submitted to a change 
from the names first adopted by them, in order 
to insure the obtaining of their charters ; thus 
when John Taggart and others from Peterbo- 
rough in 176CJ settled in what is now Stoddard, 
they named it Limerick and it was thus known 
\Vol. 9, State Papers, Page S29) up to the time of 
incorporation in 1774, when its present name was 
adopted in honor ot Col. Sampson Stoddard of 
Chelmsford, one of the original grantees ; the 
name of the township of Boyle was changed 
(Vol. 25, State Papers, Page 21, 25) to Gilsum 
when incorporated in 1763, taking the first sylla- 
bles of the two grantees' names, Gilbert and 
Sumner ; other similar changes were made under 
English regime and through English influences. 
When however these Irish settlers themselves 
selected names for their towns — as was the case 
in Peterborough — no English influence obtained, 
for it must be remembered that the present 
English and Scotch sentiments, we now hear so 
much about, did not possess that sturdy, loyal 
Irish people ; the modernly invented name of 
"Scotch-Irish", for instance— so far as we have 
any history, tradition or information — was un- 
known, unspoken and unrecorded by any of them 
at any time, the originators and proinoters of 
this strange and peculiar "Scotch-Irishism" be- 
ing strictly products of our own time and of our 
own country ; there was, for example, no such 
names as London, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, 
Edinburg, Glasgow, Aberdeen, given to towns 
where these settlers located, but the selection of 
names was from their own people, or from their 
own Ireland which they loved so well, where 
they and their ancestors for three and four gen- 
erations were born, where their kinsman and 
their descendants remaining are found today re- 
senting this modern "Scotch Irish" appellation, 
as these settlers would undoubtedly do them- 
selves if living ; it was in Ireland their sympa- 
thies centered and found expression in their se- 
lection of distinctively Irish names for the towns 
they settled, such as Dublin, Belfast, Colerain, 
Boyle, Limerick. Derry, Kilkenny, Antrim and 
many other purely Irish names. 



W/iaf Was the Origin of the Name of Our Town ? 



man — could have selected, as a person in 
whose honor to name their town, a pro- 
fessed atheist like the Earl of Peter- 
borough, of whom it was said in the 
sketch of his life given on page one of 
the Transcript of May 17, 1906: "He 
was vain, passionate, and inconstant ; a 
mocker of Christianity, and had, accord- 
ing to his own voluntary confession, com- 
mitted three capital crimes before he 
was the age of twenty." Bishop Gil- 
bert Burnet of the Church of Eng- 
land, the eminent divine and historian, 
describes him as, "a man with little true 
judgment and no virtue." Indeed the 
history of the Earl — as recorded in all 
the books I have read — was such as would 
shock the sensibilities of the good people 
who were the establishers of this town ; 
his character was at such variance with 
their sentiments that the possibility of 
their naming the town in his honor, it 
would seem to me must be precluded. 

It cannot be said that these intelligent 
settlers might have been ignorant, as were 
many of the subsequent generations, of 
the Earl's character ; he was in tottering 
old age and his notorious reputation — 
now happily almost obliterated — had long 
been the theme of song and story in the 
books and newspapers of the day before 
these settlers left Ireland, a part of the 
world which had been the center of the 
theatre of his profligacy and crime. 

Ordinarily the question of the origin of 
the town's name would be of no great 
moment, and would not warrant the at- 
tention here given it, but when, as in 
this instance, an erroneous claim would 
do the christian founders of the town 
violent injustice, the matter becomes 
highly important and the error should be 
corrected. 

Ours is the onl}- town or other muni- 
cipality of our name in the United States. 
In the town of Smithfield, Madison 
county. New York, there is a village and 
po=t office called Peterborough. In an- 
swer to an inquirj-, the town clerk of 
Smithfield, who resides in the village of 
Peterborough, writes : "This village took 



its name from Peter Smith, who settled 
here about 1800 ; he was a great land 
owner, having at one time about 60,000 
acres in this vicinity — the village (Peter- 
borough) took its name from his given 
name and the township (Smithfield) from 
his surname — he was the father of Gerrit 
Smith, the great abolitionist, who did so 
much to free the salves." The township 
of Smithfield has a population of 875, 
the village of Peterborough about 300. 

There is a small city, Peterborough, 
in Ontario, Canada, the county seat of 
Peterborough county, 76 miles northeast 
of Toronto ; this and our own town be- 
ing the only municipalities of the name 
in North America. In answer to an in- 
quiry, the historian of this prosperous 
young Canadian city, writes : "The name 
of our town, Peterborough — which was 
proclaimed a city July i, 1905— is derived 
from the christian name of Peler Robin- 
son, who, in the twenties, brought a large 
immigration, some 2,000 to it. This is 
the origin of the name. We have a popu- 
lation of 14,500." 

Thus it will be seen that the other 
places in America, taking the name of 
Peterborough, derived it not from the 
disreputable Earl of Peterborough, but 
from the given name of some proprietor 
or benefactor of the place. There can be 
but little doubt that our town derived its 
name in precisely the same way from 
Peter Prescott, who was such an impor- 
tant factor in the early history of the 
town at the time it received its name 
more than six years prior to the Earl's 
death and while yet an unincorporated 
township. 

The town history states (page 51) : "It 
is significant that in a certain deed to 
Lieut. John Gregg, of the farm C, by 
John Hill, Dec. 6, 1743, it is described as 
in 'East Monadnick.' It may be that 
this was at first the designation of the 
town, which it so well represents in loca- 
tion, till near 1750. Previous to this the 
proprietors had called it the 'township.' 
It is first recognized in their records by 
the name of Peterborough, at their meet- 



6 



What Was the Origin of the Name of Our Town ? 



ing held in Peterborough, Sept^. 22, 1753." 
The interesting history of the "Home ot 
the Smith Family," by Jonathan Smith, 
(page 30) in giving a certain petition, 
dated Oct. 4th, 1750, in which the name 
of the town appears, states : "It shows 
that the town was already called Peter- 
borough, and is the earliest known men- 
tion of the fact." 

This is an error ; the first mention of 
the name Petersborough in the proprie- 
tor's records was in 1750, but the name of 
our town, in the different forms of spell- 
ing, can be found in the Massachusetts 
Archives, in many documents antidating 
the year 1750; these are copied — with the 
dates and forms of spelling given— on 
the following pages of the New Hamp- 
shire State Papers : September, 1739, 
Peters Burrer, Vol. 24, page 309 ; June, 
1740, Peterborough, Vol. 24, page 137 ; 
May 13, 1747, Petersborough, Vol. g, 
page 8; Jan. 26, 1748, Peterborough, 
Vol. 28, page 186; 1748, Peters Borough, 
Vol. 29, page 231 ; Dec. 3, 1748, Peter- 
borow. Vol. 29, page 246 ; June 16, 
1749, Petersburrough, Vol. 28, page 447; 
June 30, 1750, Petersburrough, Vol. 28, 
page 339; Dec. 3, 1750, Peterbourrow, 
Vol. 29, page 439, and in the years be- 
tween that and 1760 — the year the town's 
present name was finally and definitely 
fixed by incorporation — it was in most in- 
stances, spelled with the letter "s" fol- 
lowing the prefix Peter. 

Thus the first mention of the name of 
our town, with theorignal spelling, which 
we have been able to find anywhere, is 
on page 309, Vol. 24 of the State Papers, 
in an act of confirmation by the Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives to 
Jeremiah Allen; dated September, 1739, 
of a 500 acre tract of land, in what is 
now Sharon and which was surveyed the 
July previous, described as "adjoining to 
a new township called Peters Burrer." 

It will be seen that the early spelling of 
the name of the town was, generally, in- 
consistent with the name of the Earl of 
Peterborough, and the suggestion that it 
was probably named in his honor, as 



stated in the town history (page 51) 
must in the light of certain facts, be 
classed as an error. The town was called 
"Peters Burrer" (1739) six years before 
the Earl's death (1745.). 

From pages 75 and 76 of Sawtelle's 
History of Towusend, Mass., I copy the 
following : 

"Among the inhabitants of Concord, 
were some of the leading men of this 
province, at the time of the settlement of 
Townsend, and onward. December 6, 
I737i '^ township east of Monadnock 
hills, on the southern branch of Contoo- 
cook river,' was granted to Samuel Hay- 
ward, and others, of Concord. This 
township was afterward principally owned 
by Peter Prescott of Concord, who was a 
large landholder and speculator. Tradi- 
tion says that Peter Prescott, during the 
time he passed at Peterborough, lived in 
a semi-subterranean cave, snugly en- 
sconced in an abrupt hillside with a sunny 
outlook ; and that his Concord friends, 
and the land speculators, would talk 
about 'Peter's burrow,' of 'going up to 
Peter's burrow' — hence Peterborough or 
the name of the town. "3 

Dr. Albert Smith, the learned author of 
our town history, stated (page 51) that he 
knew "nothing in what manner Peter- 
borough received its name," depending 
entirely upon what he heard his father 
say. The error might very naturally and 
gradually have crept in — before the elder 
Smith's time — as the Earl of Peter- 
borough, likeCapt. Kidd, was the subject 

(3) This abode of Peter Prescott— the first 
white man's dwelling place in town, thesite of 
which should be permanently marked — was. 
according to record and tradition, on the land 
now owned by Mrs. B. P. Cheney, some distance 
southeasterly from her fine dwelling house on 
the hill and two or three rods northeasterly from 
the present granite watering trough on the 
north side of Cheney Avenue. The first of the 
several lots Prescott drew were Nos. 7 and 70, 
fifty acres each, together making a double lot ; 
the records show that the first was drawn as his 
home-lot and it comports with tradition that it 
was on a hill sloping to the south and near a 
spring. The record of deeds also shows that 
Prescott sold both of these lots to William Scott, 
but on account of threatened Indian raids, Scott 
did not settle there until about 1749, when he 
came, with his newly wedded wife, and built a 
house on or near the site of Prescott's former 
abode : this house was standing within the mem- 
ory of those now (1906) living. 



What Was the Origin of the Mime of Our Town ? 



of many stories of startliiij^ adventure ; 
he was indeed a more romantic, if not at- 
tractive character than plain Peter Pres- 
coit who was in the enterprise with the 
mercenary purpose of settling the town 
for what money there was in it, finally 
selling his interest, when it suited his 
purpose, but not, however, until the 
township had, by common consent, been 
named after him, over twenty years be- 
fore its charter. The statement made by 
Rev. John H. Morison, in his centennial 
address, delivered Oct. 24, 1839 (town 
history, page 261) that, "the town is said 
to have taken its name from Peter Pres- 
cott, of Concord, Mass.," does not ap- 
pear to have been controverted. Dr. 
Morison was a very exact and scholarly 
man, well versed in the town's his- 
tory, and this public statement, thus 
made, at this early date, of what was 
said to have been the origin of the name 
of the town, will carry with it great 
weight ; presumably he would not have 
made the statement and thus given cur- 
rency to it in his valuable and carefully 
prepared centennial address, if he had 
considered it erroneous, or having made 
it, would have added a correction if he 
had considered it wrong. 

The able historian, F. B. Sanborn, of 
Concord, Mass., made the following in- 
teresting suggestion in a recent letter : 

"I think both stories of the origin of 
the name are correct. Peter Prescott* — 
to whom among others the Massachuetts 
Legislature granted Peterborough in 173S 

(4) There is but meager record of Peter Pres- 
cott ; a letter of inquiry to the librarian of Har- 
vard College library, brought the following data: 
"Peter Prescott was graduated from Harvard 
in the class of 1730. Our college records of grad- 
uates of that period are very fragmentary, and 
give no information about him. From other 
sources I learn that he was born April 17, 1709, 
son of Dr. Jonathan Prescott and Rebecca Bulk- 
ley of Concord, Mass. He was a lawyer residing 
at Concord and Boston before the Revolution ; 
he dealt extensively in wild lands ; he was out 
in the service of his country several times during 
the French war and commanded a company at 
Crown Point in 175S ; he removed to Annapolis, 
Nova Scotia, where he was appointed clerk of 
one of the courts and where he died in 17S4. In 

1746 or '47 (?) he married Elizabeth , who 

died Feb. 14, 1S04. I am not able to give you anv 
information more than the above details, whicfi 
were taken from 'Shatluck's History of Concord,' 
and the 'Prescott Memorial.' " 



was an important person, born in Con- 
cord, but living in Boston after graduat- 
ing at Harvard in 1730. He removed to 
Nova Scotia before the Revolution, and 
died there in 1784, no doubt a Tory. He 
was a descendant of two Peter Bulkleys, 
the founder of Concord, and his grand- 
son of the same name. It was quite 
natural that coloquially the settlement 
should be called 'Peter's Borough.' But 
when it was incorporated by the Went- 
worths and the N. H. Legislature, some 
time after 1759 and before 1767, the 
fashion had set in of naming towns and 
counties for English nobleman, and prob- 
ably the Weutworths and Atkinsons 
transferred the honor of the name to the 
Earl of Peterborough in England. It 
does not seem to have been fully incor- 
porated in 1762, (see page 836 o,f Vol. 6 of 
Provincial Papers), but by 1767 it had 
been made a town. The petitioners of 
1759 call it 'the Township of Peter- 
borough ;' but the Massashusetts grants 
did not hold after 1741, except for the 
protection of private property, and many 
towns were renamed when granted by 
the Wentworths." 

But this suggestion, that the honor 
might have been transferred to the dis- 
reputable Earl of Peterborough, is at 
best mere conjecture. What was in the 
minds of the Wentworths and Atkinsons 
is of course unknown, and if known 
would really be of no consequence in dis- 
cussing the origin of the name. The 
name., which originated from Peter Pres- 
cott soon after the settlement was estab- 
lished, was fully adopted and by long 
usage universally accepted over twenty 
years prior to incorporation ; we find it, 
among other places, in convej'ances 
(1739), in quitclaim of the Masonian pro- 
prietors (1748), in the proprietory records 
(1750), in the petition to Gov. Went- 
worlh for a fort (1755 or 1756), and in 
the petition to Gov. Wentworth for in- 
corporation (Oct. 31, 1759). when the 
township was referred to as "commonly 
called and known by the name of Peter- 
borough ; " it so remained to the date of in- 
corporation and down to the present time. 
Nothing can change that origin ; it is not 
recorded, indeed, that such a change was 
ever attempted, suggested or desired by 
any one. 



lot l* 













s^ >. 



















>^.* .^' "o ^'^ 














v^. 







,^^\ 


















'^-^4,'^ ■ "^^ A^"" * 
^^\^ 







,-lo^ 







0^ .•_^^*, "O, ,^^ ^oO.V. 



0* 



.^' 








^^* ^ "^ • 



o . » " A 







A' 










-:. ^^^>y^. 



>Vv>>^ 



"i- 






^^. 



V 



'^^<^ 

.-5^"^. 



."^ 



^o 



.0' 



o V 



V 



•^ 
•^x. 






?^-*..**' 









-^^0^ 






.^^ 



...* ,0^ 



^v-o:^^: 



^'- ^^r. A^ 






<^ ^\^-^rr^. 
















<v ^ 



» O ' -0 






..^ 






■A. , * (■ V" 



-J 



,0- 






A<=>. 



1./ .5 










A^-t 












^°V 



■K.'" j-° n- •■■ y °t. ■•■■■ *o -^ -• 

V. ■^., .. .,..,..^ .^^^^,v ..^, .,^^^^,.0 .•„..-. >.^^^^, 



















vm -X/^v^X. 



-o/^^M- 



